Infectious diseases are one of the world's most pressing health challenges and the development of strategies capable of quickly identifying infections presents a difficult challenge because most of the diagnostic applications currently employed are slow, expensive, and are not practical for point-of-care or field applications.
Microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses in biological samples are hard to detect at low concentrations and usually require long induction or incubation times before further analysis can be performed. Currently, the identification of microorganisms in biological samples is a time-consuming process. For bacterial detection, body fluid samples must be incubated for long periods of time before any bacterial cultures can be positively identified. Methods that can detect bacteria at ultralow concentrations without time-consuming incubation or amplification processes thus have certain advantages in clinical diagnosis, food safety, biodefense, and/or environmental monitoring applications.
Currently, the identification of bacteria in aqueous samples such as urine is a time-consuming process. Exemplary urine samples must be incubated for days before positive identification of any bacterial cultures can be microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses are hard to detect at low concentrations and usually require long induction or incubation times before further analysis can be performed. For bacterial detection, body fluid samples must be incubated for tong periods of time before any bacterial cultures can be positively identified. Methods that can detect bacteria at ultralow concentrations without time-consuming incubation or amplification processes thus have certain advantages in clinical diagnosis, food safety, biodefense, and/or environmental monitoring applications.